Shalah
A Hebrew name meaning "to sprout forth or grow".
Name Census estimates that about 131 living Americans carry the first name Shalah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Shalah today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shalah births was 1989 (11 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shalah. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
131
~ 1 in 2,616,445 Americans
Peak year
1989
11 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
2004 SSA rank
#18,338
Tracked since 1971
Census
Shalah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 227 people with the first name Shalah, which placed it at #35,437 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#35,437
National first-name rank
People counted
227
227 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
42.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shalah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shalah is White at 42.3%. The next largest groups are Black (35.2%) and Two or More Races (10.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Shalah described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Shalah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White42.3% · 96
- Black or African American35.2% · 80
- Two or more races10.6% · 24
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.2% · 14
- Hispanic or Latino4.4% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 3
Popularity
Shalah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shalah from the 1970s through to the 2000s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 65 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Shalah by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Shalah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shalah
The name Shalah originates from the Hebrew language and is found in the biblical Book of Genesis. It is derived from the Hebrew root word "shalach," which means "to send forth" or "to sprout." In Genesis 10:24, Shalah is mentioned as the son of Arphaxad and the father of Eber.
Shalah is a significant figure in the genealogical line leading to Abraham, the patriarch of the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic faiths. The name Shalah is closely associated with the biblical narrative and holds a prominent place in the history of the Abrahamic religions.
The earliest recorded instance of the name Shalah can be found in the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Old Testament. Beyond its biblical origins, there are limited historical records or notable figures bearing this name in ancient times.
One of the earliest known individuals named Shalah was Shalah ben Judah, a Jewish scholar who lived in Babylon during the 3rd century CE. He was a prominent member of the Jewish community and is mentioned in the Talmud, a central text of Rabbinic Judaism.
Another individual named Shalah was a 10th-century Jewish scholar from Tunis. He is known for his work in the field of Hebrew linguistics and is often referred to as Shalah ha-Tzadik (Shalah the Righteous).
In the 16th century, a Jewish mystic and kabbalist named Shalah ha-Kadosh (Shalah the Holy) lived in Tzfat, Israel. He was a renowned figure in the study of Kabbalah and authored several influential works, including "Sefer Shalah."
Shalah ibn Salih, a 17th-century Jewish scholar from Yemen, made significant contributions to the study of Jewish law and philosophy. He is remembered for his work titled "Shalah ha-Kadosh."
While the name Shalah has biblical roots and is deeply rooted in Jewish history and tradition, it has not been widely used outside of these contexts. The name has remained relatively obscure in other cultures and has not seen widespread adoption or notable historical figures beyond those mentioned.
People
Shalah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shalah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Shalah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shalah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 131 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shalah going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 2,616,445 US residents.
Is Shalah a common name?
We classify Shalah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 68.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 138 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shalah most popular?
The single biggest year for Shalah was 1989, when 11 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shalah is about 37 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shalah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 227 people with the name Shalah, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #35,437 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Shalah in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Shalah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shalah leans strongly female. 211 people counted with this name were female (92.1%), compared with 18 male bearers (7.9%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Shalah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shalah is White at 42.3%. The next largest groups are Black (35.2%) and Two or More Races (10.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Shalah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Shalah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 42.3% (96 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Shalah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shalah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Shalah in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Shalah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shalah in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Shalah can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Shalah?
You can see how many Americans are named Shalah on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.